Back to Even

AKA "THE DEBT". This role is the farthest reach you can imagine for Lorenzo Lamas. It is definitely not his usual fare BUT it is a great performance by both him and Michael Pare. They play childhood friends/current antagonists. 15 years ago they got in trouble together. But Mitch (Lamas) got out, went straight. Boyle (Pare) never forgave him for deserting him and vowed to pull him back. Now the squeeze is on Boyle and Mitch will come back or die! It is hard to picture Lamas as a victim until you see him play this role. He makes you uncomfortably aware that each person has within him the capability of being the victim and/or the hero. So much depends on what life does to us at an early age. When people make us afraid of who we are the outcome is sad. There is a difference between redirecting energy and breaking someones spirit. There are many stories here and each time you watch it you see another dimension. But for all that I still prefer Lamas as the action hero with a large smattering of high kicks to keep the excitement high.

Lorenzo Lamas and Michael Pare join forces in a clichéd plot revolving a well intended factory worker who gets into debt with a bookie and of course the only way to pay back such a debt is by helping the bookie with a counterfeit operation involving plates. Lorenzo Lamas is fairly unrecognizable as a glasses wearing nerd who is forced into the crime world by Michael Pare's bookie mobster. Indeed Pare is very good, so much so that he steals every scene he's in and manages to upstage everyone else. Lamas is decent, but his overall look is hard to take and indeed the lack of action or martial arts disappoints somewhat as one expects such a team up to deliver such. Still, The Debt is an interesting failure. It's sort of a period piece melodrama/film noir and it's fairly well acted, but the problem lies in the fact that the ending lacks true satisfaction, the plot is ultimately confusing when one thinks about it and of course it's melodramatic as all hell. Indeed this film feels like a rip off of a John Woo heroic bloodshed movie without the bloodshed or heroic prowess. Still the movie has a watchable edge and it works because it's often engrossing to see Lamas and Pare try hard to experiment with non-action roles.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

Really a disappointing movie with a very shallow script. Nevertheless, Lamas performs reasonably well as the caring, supportive son. He shows us that his acting prowess extends to beyond the stereotyped gung-ho "Rambo" hero that we've come to associate with him. In this particular movie, wearing a pair of spectacles, however, was a bit over-the-top in an effort to portray a fragile character. His incessant fiddling with them was quite irritating. In hindsight, the movie was hardly engaging, and quite predictable towards its climax. The mood and scenes are also generally a bit on the somber side, even gruesome in one instance. My advice: steer clear of this one in your local video store.

Welp, against her better judgment, Stephanie bought Michael Paré's latest bomb on DVD the other day. You know you're in for trouble when a newly released DVD costs ONLY $5.88 and stars Michael Paré AND Lorenzo Lamas.

We knew we were in for a stink-fest, so we invited a couple of friends over and made an evening of it. How bad was the movie? It was horrible. It would be in my "Top 5 Worst Movies" list, but I've seen more than 5 Michael Paré movies, so that makes it harder to judge. It was pretty bad even by Michael Paré standards though, so it's definitely high on the list. What makes this movie even worse is that everybody made it seem like they were trying. Some highlights:

*The bright beam of light coming from Lamas' refrigerator. I have no idea what that was about. Either the Heavenly Host was hanging out in his fridge, or he had a pair of headlights in there.

*Paré has a strong-arm (i.e. a bodyguard/enforcer) that has no muscle tone, a pot belly, is about 60 years old, and wears some outfit that you'd expect your grandpa to wear while on vacation in Florida. They couldn't get somebody that fit the role? Come on.

*In one scene, after Paré has hit Lamas in the face, the strong-arm says to Lamas, "It looks like you just drank sour milk." I'll have to remember to use that one at work sometime.

*While visiting his dad in the hospital, Lamas actually says to him, "I hear you took a turn for the nurse." Whew.

*Lamas' dad's arm got cut off when it was caught in a printer. I can't even begin to describe how fake it looked when they showed where it was cut. And the length of the remaining part of his arm kept fluctuating throughout the movie. The best was when you could see the elbow poking out through dude's shirt. Wait a minute! I thought he lost his arm! What's going on here?!?!?

*The vocals would fade in and out. Sounded like a warped tape. Many times you couldn't hear the vocals and other times they'd be bursting your ear drums. AND THIS IS A BRAND NEW DVD!

*The production values are about what you'd expect from a 1970 made-for-TV movie, yet the movie was made in 1998.

*The tagline on the DVD reads, "No one escapes THIS collection service."

You should know by now whether this is something you wanna check out.

THE GIST:

I think you get the point. If you like to watch really bad movies for a laugh, then this one might satisfy your appetite. It's best to watch it with some friends though so y'all can make fun of it together. I definitely couldn't have sat through this alone.